Opinion

Let these people in

Immigrants made America great

By Ryan Clark

Posted on April 10, 2006, at 12:00 a.m.

Maybe the old adage, “In order to know where you are going, you have to know where you have been,” is becoming more true.

What I mean by this is one word that has a lot of people in America up in arms – immigration.

Not too long ago, this country was full of immigrants. The last time I checked, these people were called our ancestors. It’s through immigration that the United States achieved its true identity. After all, we are the only country in the world that does not have a ‘true’ people.

Although this country has ‘true’ Americans, let’s remember that those people were driven out by, well, immigrants. Since 1492, the New World, the Americas or whatever you want to call it, has been flooded with immigration. These people who immigrated have gone on to do things in this country that people from their previous country did not think possible.

America’s early immigration has made this place into what it is today – a society that almost fears what it once was. Lately, immigration has become a hot topic since the announcement of the Guest Worker program. This program allows someone to come to the U.S. and work for an extended period of time. Once they are done, they go back to their native land.

The program is a good idea, but still, is it warranted? I do understand that one of the many problems with immigration is healthcare. The common question is, “Why do I, an American citizen, have to pay for a foreign person’s healthcare?”

Here’s a question. Why do I, as an American, have to pay for the healthcare of other Americans? This is not an issue about healthcare but an issue of people who deserve to make something of themselves.

Two years ago when a hurricane wrecked my hometown, there was damage beyond belief. Something that was also beyond belief was that my uncle said that when it came to having repairs made, he would rather have an immigrant do the work than an American. He didn’t list money as a reason because, I will put it to you like this: This man can afford to put the cheese on his Whopper at Burger King. His reasoning was based on the notion that immigrants work harder because they want to strive for a better life by any means necessary – even if that means cleaning up hurricane debris.

People in this country often complain about others wanting to get something without working for it and how we need to get rid of that mentality. Yet when there are people who have a good work ethic who aren’t American, people want to get rid of them.

I do understand that with immigration comes an issue of more people and who is going to pay for them to be here. Granted, these people may not start off contributing to society right away, but they will over time. It may not be directly through them, but it will be through their children and grandchildren. Who would have thought that the descendants of immigrants would make a country great?

Can you imagine a country founded by immigrants going on to do things like put a man on the moon or develope from poverty into an economic superpower? Someone did. They were called our ancestors. They were also called something else: Immigrants.

Ryan Clark is a senior journalism major.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 10th, 2006, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.